A Note on the Fractal Behavior of Hydraulic Conductivity and Effective Porosity for Experimental Values in a Confined Aquifer

Abstract EN

Hydraulic conductivity and effective porosity values for the confined sandy loam aquifer of the Montalto Uffugo (Italy) test field were obtained by laboratory and field measurements; the first ones were carried out on undisturbed soil samples and the others by slug and aquifer tests.

A direct simple-scaling analysis was performed for the whole range of measurement and a comparison among the different types of fractal models describing the scale behavior was made.

Some indications about the largest pore size to utilize in the fractal models were given.

The results obtained for a sandy loam soil show that it is possible to obtain global indications on the behavior of the hydraulic conductivity versus the porosity utilizing a simple scaling relation and a fractal model in coupled manner.